Cakes and Ale, or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard is a novel by the British author W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham drew his title from the remark of Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Late in life, Somerset Maugham claimed that this was the favourite among his novels and it is easy to see why, with its wit and provocative themes handled with consummate skill. In his introduction to a Modern Library edition, published in 1950, Maugham wrote, "I am willing enough to agree with common opinion that Of Human Bondage is my best work ... But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale ... because in its pages lives for me again the woman with the lovely smile who was the model for Rosie Driffield." The story is told by Willie Ashenden, a character who previously appeared in Maugham’s short-story collection Ashenden. A novelist, Ashenden is befriended by the ambitious, self-serving Alroy Kear, who has been commissioned to write an official biography of the famous novelist Edward Driffield. Kear believes that he must ignore the less-than-noble aspects of his subject’s life in order to write a best seller. The story satirizes London literary circles and has been widely considered a roman à clef with Maugham as Ashenden, Thomas Hardy as Driffield, and Hugh Walpole as Kear.
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